Written by James Maule – Trainee PR Account Executive, 2021

Today marks the last day of my six-month traineeship at Muckle Media. Back in March I joined Muckle, fresh out of university with a Sociology degree. I was new to the PR industry and ready to learn.

Prior to joining Muckle, my understanding of what PR was more around the media relations side of reputation management, but I’ve learnt it goes far beyond that. My time at Muckle has taught me that PR strategies can cover a number of channels depending on client objectives, devising plan to deliver results, whether it’s through media relations, social media campaigns or creative executions.

Through the traineeship I was able to gain insight and understand the core foundations to PR, and I absolutely loved it. Copywriting, drafting social media content, research, liaising with clients, compiling media lists, engaging with journalists and most importantly, gaining coverage. Gaining positive coverage was a priority for a lot of clients, so a good deal of time was spent selling-in to media outlets and sourcing journalists who would take interest in stories. So, a lot of variety in a typical week of my
traineeship!

I was also involved in managing our in-house social media, consistently creating content covering topics such as case studies, client news, new business, agency news and the campaigns we delivered for our clients. I was responsible for drafting copy and creating graphics and sourcing imagery, and at Muckle we always had something to say or share!

Throughout my traineeship, I have been privileged to work on some fascinating projects and amazing clients, including The Hebridean Baker and Edinburgh Napier’s graduation. Now, with my time at Muckle coming to an end, it feels that it has passed all too quickly. Muckle has helped me to thrive, both professionally and as an individual, and I will be forever appreciative of that fact.

Having spent the past six months furthering my understanding of what PR is and refining my skillsets, I am ready to start my career!

Written by Jenna Maclean – Trainee PR Account Executive, 2021

Over the last five months, I’ve been a trainee account executive at Muckle Media, taking my first steps into the world of PR. Before seeing the job advertisement, PR wasn’t something I’d ever considered or really knew much about, but after reading the advert I recognised lots of key skills I had that could translate to PR and thought I’d apply.

Graduating in the summer of 2020 was not the best time to be entering the job market with a global pandemic going on, so I was thrilled to get back into full-time work when Muckle offered me the position. On my very first day, we released a story on behalf of philanthropy organisation The Hunter Foundation about Scotland’s economy and contacted leading politicians, which resulted in blanket media coverage and stakeholder engagement. Over the last few months, I’ve honed my skills by working across a variety of consumer, third sector, public sector and B2B accounts, from writing press releases for hotels to drafting interviews about aquaculture and pitching celebrity chefs for TV. 

After five months of being a trainee account executive, how would I describe PR? PR stands for public relations, and so we aim to help our clients interact with the public in more than one way, managing and building reputations. Each of them will have their own target audience and so it’s up to us to help them communicate their key messages and values with their respective audience. This could be in the form of advising on and creating social media content to drive interest and footfall to a new distillery or hotel, or it could be writing a thought leadership piece around building sustainable homes. We’re also on hand to advise our clients how to manage their reputation during a crisis or unexpected developments, or to try and launch a news story that gets covered and sparks media interest.  

What’s my favourite part of PR? Aside from my reputation as the queen of proofreading (no typo gets past me), I’ve absolutely loved exploring media relations. During my time in the job, I’ve been part of many media sell-ins and thrived on placing last minute stories and pitching long-lead features. 

My traineeship with Muckle is coming to an end as I head back to university to study for a Masters in Film and TV Production. Working in PR has helped me to further develop my transferable skills and has certainly given me a much better understanding of the media landscape that I’ll be able to apply to my course. I’m excited for what the future holds but am definitely going to miss my wonderful colleagues at Muckle! 

To find out more about Muckle Media’s traineeships please visit our careers page